Sembradoras: Women’s evangelism at Monte Hebrón

On Friday mornings, the living room of Tommy and Brenda Ashcraft’s home became a meeting place for women preparing to share the gospel. From that familiar setting, the women went out to visit and speak with people in the surrounding community. Led by Brenda Ashcraft, the group was known as Sembradoras—the feminine Spanish word for “sowers.” Its work formed part of the regular evangelistic life of Iglesia Bautista Monte Hebrón. [3, 4]

A regular place in the week

By March 2011, Brenda was leading the church’s main women’s soul-winning program alongside her responsibilities as church pianist and supervisor of the Bible institute’s music program. Evangelistic visits were an established part of her work, sharing her time with the classroom and the church services. [1]

The Friday gathering connected the Ashcraft home directly with the ministry of the congregation. In August 2013, the women were meeting in the living room every Friday; by June 2014, their schedule was identified specifically as Friday morning. Brenda led the group, while Tommy led a men’s Fishermen’s Club on Friday nights. Their home and their weekly schedules were closely bound to these opportunities for personal evangelism. [2, 3]

Sembradoras offered women an organized opportunity to take part in the church’s outreach. Its work depended on regular participation: gathering together, going out, and speaking to people about their need for salvation. The weekly pattern gave the ministry a continuing place in church life beyond anniversary services, conferences, or seasonal campaigns. [2–4]

A birthday followed by neighborhood visits

In August 2013, the women celebrated Brenda’s sixty-sixth birthday with a party. The gathering did not replace their evangelistic visits. After the celebration, they went out and shared the gospel, with eighteen professions of faith reported from that day’s work. [2]

The occasion brought together friendship and the purpose for which the women regularly met. They could honor their leader, enjoy time together, and then continue the activity that had drawn them into the group. The eighteen professions of faith were the reported result of that particular outing, rather than an attendance figure or an annual total. [2]

Brenda remained active that summer despite recurring health problems. She seldom allowed those difficulties to keep her from the Friday meetings. Her participation also provided an example for women in the church and young women studying at the institute: personal evangelism continued alongside the other demands and limitations of everyday life. [2]

An eighty-five-year-old neighbor

One encounter placed the ministry’s work only a few blocks from the Ashcraft home. In late November 2014, Brenda shared the gospel with an eighty-five-year-old woman and led her to faith in Christ. The woman’s name was not recorded, but her age and the proximity of her home preserved something of the individual encounter. [4]

By December 5, Brenda was again out with the women. The program continued to meet weekly, and she regularly returned with joy over someone she had helped understand and respond to the gospel. Alongside the group’s reported results, the account of the elderly neighbor gives the ministry a personal scale: a conversation with one woman living nearby. [4]

One part of a wider church effort

Sembradoras worked within a larger network of evangelistic groups. In June 2014, Monte Hebrón had eighteen groups going out each week. Recent additions included two women’s groups and a Sunday-afternoon program intended for members whose schedules prevented them from participating at other times. [3]

The church reported an average of more than four hundred professions of faith per week across those eighteen groups. That figure described the combined outreach of the church; it was not a total for Brenda’s Sembradoras group. Her Friday-morning gathering was one part of that broader effort, alongside the men’s programs and other opportunities for church members to participate. [3]

The different meeting times allowed evangelism to fit into more than one weekly schedule. Within that arrangement, Brenda’s group had its own recognizable setting and rhythm: women gathering in the living room on Friday morning before going into the community. [3]

A ministry rooted in ordinary encounters

The surviving accounts preserve Sembradoras through specific scenes: a Friday meeting at home, a birthday celebration followed by witnessing, and a conversation with an elderly neighbor. Together, these episodes show how Brenda’s leadership extended beyond her better-known work at the piano and in the institute. [1–4]

The home that welcomed the women each week became a starting point for ministry outside it. Through those regular visits, Sembradoras gave personal evangelism a familiar place in the life of Monte Hebrón’s women and in Brenda’s own weekly service. [2–4]